Expert: Milan Patel, Global Head of Sales Engineering at FA Solutions Facilitator: Blaise Cardozo, Director at Davies - Consulting Division
Overview:
The need to thrive and grow while also spending less due to margin pressure has been well documented within the wealth management industry. The role of technology in handling increased operational costs and reducing fees while improving client services is well debated.
Participants discussed their own experiences, including margin squeeze, risks around major technology bets, change management needs, and client portal expectations. Other issues raised include integration challenges, the importance of APIs, a lack of internal expertise, and de-risking projects.
Solution providers are well equipped to deal with many of these concerns. After all, it was noted that solution configuration, service delivery models, de-risking projects, time to value, and flexibility are their areas of specialism and expertise. In that respect, all participants acknowledged the importance of the wealth manager being able to define what is strategically important and, therefore, in need of customisation, solution-wise, as opposed to those functions that can be approached with an out-of-the-box approach.
Participants also noted the need for a particular emphasis on change management and the need to have efficient and configurable systems and solutions. A modular ecosystem approach was thought to lean itself best to that end, with innovations like AI, tokenised assets, and private markets all needing to be covered from the perspective of infrastructure needs, impacts on operating models, and interoperability considerations. The benefits of SaaS models, proof of concept, and considerations around core system flexibility were also discussed.
Key findings:
- The role of technology in handling increased operational costs and reducing fees while improving client services is very current
- Specific concerns include risks around major technology bets, change management needs, and client portal expectations. Other issues include integration challenges, the importance of APIs, a lack of internal expertise, and de-risking projects.
- Solution providers are well equipped to deal with many of these concerns
- There is a need for a particular emphasis on change management and the need to have efficient and configurable systems and solutions
- New areas needing consideration include covering infrastructure needs, impacts on operating models, and interoperability considerations
